ALISTAIR JOHNSTON admitted it had been a “humbling experience” in the Westfalenstadion as Celtic crashed to a 7-1 loss in their one-sided Champions League encounter.
The Canadian World Cup right-back and his team-mates were swept aside by a yellow-and-black tornado with the Bundesliga giants leading 5-1 before the interval.
Apart from a brief moment of hope when Daizen Maeda claimed an equaliser in the ninth minute, Brendan Rodgers’ men got lost in a maze of mistakes as they constantly surrendered possession to Borussia who punished them severely for their generosity.
DESPAIR IN DORTMUND…Alistair Johnston reflects as Borussia celebrate.
Johnston, part of a defence that has yet to concede a goal in six Premiership outings this term, said: “We are not used to losing and that’s a pretty humbling experience, but they were Champions League finalists last season.
“We knew it was going to be a really difficult game.
“We have to take things from it, we will watch it back and be honest with ourselves. That’s what is really good about this group and the coaching staff, we are honest and we have got to build on that.
“We have got to understand what we did wrong, what they punished us with and what we did right.
“There aren’t as many things we did right in this match, unfortunately, but there will be little moments where we could make a little change to be braver in our positioning, be more compact defensively and things like that.
“We will get it sorted out. It’s a really confident group we have here.
TWO IN TORMENT…Alistair Johnston and Callum McGregor share the woe.
“We are not going to let this wobble us at all. We just have to understand it can happen, but it can’t happen again.”
Johnston, speaking to the media, added: “We have a really strong group here that’s used to winning.
“Of course, the Champions League is a different level altogether, but at the same time we are confident in the football that we play.
“Some of the finishes they had were unbelievable and that is the level.
“But we know we can play much better than that and we we can bounce back from that.”
The immediate task in hand for the champions is the Premiership visit to Dingwall on Sunday for the midday kick-off against Ross County.
On the European front, Johnston and his team-mates travel to Bergamo to take on Europa League winners Atalanta on Wednesday October 23 and then before facing another Bundesliga outfit in RB Leipzig at Parkhead on Tuesday November 5.
